Tonight’s the night Cliff Lee will be making his much anticipated Phillies debut. He’ll also try to halt the Phillies two game skid.

The reigning American League Cy Young winner is having a terrific season with a 3.14 earned run average and 1.30 WHIP in 152 innings with the Tribe. He had a 7-9 record, but lacked run support. The Phillies failed to support their pitchers over the last two games. They’ve only scored two runs in last two games, very uncharacteristic for the Phillies.

Ryan Sadowski started his Major League career by throwing 13 consevutive scoreless innings. Since, he has allowed 13 earned runs in the last 11.1 innings he has pitched. However, he has pitched well at AT&T Park. His ERA at home is 1.50 in 12 innings.

Your Gameday Beer– Konigshoeven Blond Trappist Ale
Tonight’s beer kicks off our European tour and comes from the De Koningshoeven Brewery, a Dutch Trappist brewery. It is the only producer of Trappist beer outside of Belgium. Run inside an abbey, the monks get the water for the beer from five 200-metre deep wells on the grounds. La Trappe Blond is one of their many offerings. This Pale Ale is bitter and sweet like fruit candy, but less sweet by comparison to the more popular Leffe Blonde. – By Brian

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baseballfan

July 31, 2009 at 9:45 pm

I know tonight is all about Lee for you Philly fans ,but that Pedro outing was not encouraging,huh? He did well for like 4 innings, then blew up. That has been his problem the last few years. He also only pitched relief in the WBC. Maybe he just cant start anymore?

Other than that, I am excited to see how Lee handles the change. From a baseball perspective, his life just got better. He is on a superior team. Who can easily repeat. I hope he handles pressure well.

At this point, who really cares about Pedro? He was a very inexpensive shot in the dark. With a 6 game lead in the division the team has the luxury to bring him up, give him 3-5 starts and if he hasn’t impressed (I’d say average 6 IP, 4 ERA, 1.75 K/BB, 1.66 WHIP) then they’re out only a million (!!!) dollars and he joins the scrap heap with Chan Ho Park or they send him back to the D.R. and he works on his community projects.

This game will keep me on the ESPN Gamecast until Lee’s done for the evening. Very excited for it. Hoping Lee comes out strong.

Pedro could be useful out of the bullpen, thats what I would use him for. I mean, I cant see Moyer being with the Phillies next year, but until then its obvious its gonna take a lot to remove him from the rotation. He would have to give up like 18 runs in the next two starts to even consider it.

meanwhile, the lineup looks poised to give Lee an early lead, need to get the runs in.

I really need the damn Indians to just lose already so I can watch this fricken game on Extra Innings!! They had a 2 run lead in the 9th and low and behold Wood blew it…unbelieveable…now we are looking at extras and I can’t watch!

kramer, thanks but no luck…those links hardle ever work for me anyway. I have the radio feed but its frustrating when you pay good money for the baseball package and they can’t set it up so you dont miss any games.

I live in Florida and have the Directv package, and I can see the game. I’m not sure why you can’t. Sometimes the game can be found in the 600 channels instead of the 700 channels where it’s usually located (but we may have different numbered channel systems).

Keep an eye on it. Cliff Lee steps over the baseline on his way to the dugout at the end of every inning his pitches. He’s got a quirk. It’s a good thing our rotation is Lee, Blanton and Hamels during this time when our bats have seemed to have fallen asleep.

This offense is in a serious slump. The long ball only so far. Getting some hits, but not hitting them in. This is why Lee left Cleveland. While its a good thing that Atl and the Mutts lost, Florida won. If we cant hold onto this one, the lead is 5 games.

FTR – Pedro cruised through 4 innings. I think he needs a few more starts in the minors to work up the arm strength. Too early to write him off. He was sitting in the low 90’s in the first few innings.

joedad, you must state the opposite of what you want to have done. That is also part of baseball superstition. What you mean is that they will not score three runs the next inning. It works great with me anyway.

Juan Uribe that BASTAGE! I am watching the Giantscast of the game via KNTV with Jon Miller and Mike Krukow.Cliff Lee is doing great so far for youse guys..I wonder if you guys are still clammoring for Roy Halladay? My watershed for the Mets was 10 games out July 31 and now I can say the NL East is out of reach for 2009,but I’m still looking wild card.I haven’t given up on my Amazins yet….only when 8 games out with 7 games left to play do I call it a season.As I said B4,I am silently rooting for Lee because he’s on my prime Fantasy Team.

I don’t want to turn this into an argument but if you noticed no one on the air said the words ‘no-hitter’, and when I flipped to MLB network at commercial and they showed highlights they were very careful to not say THOSE words. Just sayin. Obviously its not your fault but you may as well play along.

I talked about the no hitter with my young sons during the game Millwood threw against Bonds and the Giants on the Phanatics birthday because I wanted them to understand that history was about to be made. My talking about it had nothing to do with the no hitter that Milwood threw.

Joedad – no worries. We are all smart enough to know that what you or I says has nothing to do with the outcome of the game. Its just fun to play along with the superstitions is all. Did you call a bases loaded walk this inning? If so nice job!

at least jayson can get a clutch hit. Maybe it’ll spark the rest of the team for the rest of the weekend. The weather might be making it hard to hit, because they players arent used to playing this cold weather in july and the impact on the bat may be affected.

I love Lee’s composure. Takes a no-hitter to the sixth – gives up a double – not phased – mows down the rest of the inning. Sits too long during the seveth, gives up a walk and throws a few more balls – not phased – closes out the inning like nothing doing. He is fun to watch!

at least it looks like their bats are hitting a little better. A fortunate schedule quirk for me allows me to see tomorrow nights game against Lincecum… I hope they continue their pace, the phils need to chase him as early as possible. I do however think Zito is beatable, I talked to a giants fan yesterday who thinks zito has been pitching well enough to get the W vs the phils.
Anyone notice Pedro’s bad inning today? Still pitched well for 4 innings though

Don’t worry ’bout Florida. Phils will play them in a couple of weeks. They’ll be behind by double digits by the time the Phils are through with that series. There’s not stoppin’ this train to the NL East Championship. Express all the way. Just have to take it one day at a time.

Got down to Chickie & Pete’s for the game tonight, loved getting to hear people cheer each strikeout & double play. I loved this deal when it first happened, and was trying not to get my expectations too high for his first start but man did he dominate.